The axis’ activities are devoted to applications of photonics to life sciences from the study of isolated biomolecules to innovative imaging techniques deep inside thick tissues. During the last decade, the team Biomolecules and Spectroscopy (BMS) has initiated new steps towards the combination of mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy for the study of biomolecules. Several experiments have been conducted at different time scales, from femtosecond to nanosecond, and from mid IR to VUV. Recently, the BMS team has extended this research field with the aim to understand the response of complex biomolecular systems under excitation, with a particular interest for specific molecular recognition and the role of a controlled chemical environment on structural modifications and radiation damages. The team Optics in Random Media (OMA) intends to exploit the ability of near infrared light to propagate deep inside tissues as a tool for medical diagnosis. As light is multiply scattered by random structures, complex inverse problems are faced. This research develops in the fields of IR spectroscopy and of optical tomography, in which the team has a great knowhow through the development of oxymeters, Monte-Carlo simulators, time-resolved measurements of diffuse light, models for diffuse propagation, inversion procedures… The OMA team notably focused on speckle pattern analysis with the development of an integrated circuit dedicated to the real-time measurement of their statistical properties. This circuit was recently assessed for time-resolved measurements by speckle interferometry and for acousto-optics imaging.

Biomolecules and spectroscopy (BMS)

During the last decade, the team BioMolecules and Spectroscopy (BMS) has initiated a couple of new steps towards the combination of mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy for the study of biomolecules. Several experiments have been conducted at different time scales, from femtosecond to nanosecond, and in a large range of spectral regions, from mid IR to UV and VUV. Recently, the BMS team has also extended this research field with the aim to understand the response of complex biomolecular systems under excitation, with a particular interest for specific molecular recognition and the role of a controlled chemical environment on structural modifications and radiation damages.

The BMS team has developed of an alternative technique to get biomolecules directly under vacuum in conditions as close as the ones encountered in solution. This method will give us the possibility to study, for the first time, these radical chemistry processes linked to indirect effects, being free from any other radiation contribution.

The BMS team has been involved in fruitful collaborations with other experimental groups, in order to extend our research activity to the study of model biomolecules through a combined laser-spectroscopy and mass-spectrometry approach.

We are developing, in collaboration with Institut Langevin, a new protocol to perform acousto-optic imaging into a scattering medium, based on a detection with a CMOS smart-pixels sensor. Our first results demonstrate the potential advantages of this method, whose acquisition rate compatible with a use on living biological tissue.